Brazil: Peasants resist new attacks by the old State and landlords
Feature image: Illegal raid of the Military Police and RONE in the New Hope camp. Source: A Nova Democracia
This week A Nova Democracia has reported news on two peasants’ camps, which occupy the land to demand the right to it for those who live and work it.
The Mãe Bernadete camp has suffered new attacks by goons. We have previously reported on different attacks that took place in the Mãe Bernadete camp and the different attacks of the CALSETE company, which despite not being the owner of the land, claims so and demands through the Judiciary and the Armed Forces (goons and State forces) that the peasants leave the land in which nothing had been cultivated in 20 years. The company also accumulates 11 million worth of environmental fines:
Now, the peasants have achieved great local support, which has turned even the City Council, supposedly, on its side. This has hindered CALSETE of getting more goons, even if it increased the pay rate. The peasants have blocked the BR 030 road that crosses the farm under the slogan “CALSETE parasites out from our lands! The Lagoa dos Portacios Farm is ours!” And more and more residents join and organize themselves to take the the land of the camp.
However, the repression has not ended, on March 23 and 24, CALSETE goons, (which had to be brought from Crinhanha, 505 km far away) shot towards the base of the Mãe Bernadette camp. Witnesses said they heard more than 50 guns and revolvers in the forest, 100 meters from the space of families with a clear intention to intimidate. A car also chased families and peasants.
This is a clear example of the link between the goons and the State armed forces, as AND stated: “the last two are military police of the state of Bahia, which it demonstrates once again the participation and collusion of the old state in the formation of paramilitary organizations created to chase the population in the countryside and in the favelas of the big cities.”
ABRAPO (Brazilian Association of Lawyers of the People) has already denounced this situation to several institutions and has demanded that CALSETE is recognized as the responsible of the crimes.
As stated by AND, this indicates how desperate the company CALSETE is and its owner, Lineu Fernandes, who sees how the peasants have taken over the farm: “Lineu lost! The Lagoa dos Portácios hacienda belongs to the peasants and no cowardice will last more than perseverance, courage and bravery of the strong Bahian people, organized by the intrepid League of Poor Peasants!”
Also in the New Hope camp, in the Metropolitan Region of Curitiba, a great aggression by the Military Police and the Battalion of Special Rounds (RONE) that began on April 1st has been denounced.
After the death of soldier Gabriel Thomaz Felstein Fadel, son of Prime Minister Colonel Milton Fadel, who was found in a car of the family itself, some raids have been made trying to frighten the entire area, these raids are very violent and without a court order. They are carried out although the culprit has supposedly been captured.
The residents report that four vehicles entered the camp and invaded the houses. It is also denounced that a woman was tortured in front of her children and the community by the State forces.
The neighbors managed to expel the attackers, the Military Police and RONE, while shouting “thugs” and “criminals.” However, it is also denounced that while this was happening, the police, ruthlessly, tried to assault a child. The peasants have raised barricades and have prevented and resisted in front of the new brutal and illegal attempts to invade their lands.
